Hephaestus' memories
by Lifeofroos
Summary: Leo has forgotten a lot of his appointments, and his father realizes this. Hephaestus comes to talk to Leo, but while doing this a lot of his own memories come to his mind again… One-shot.


Leo was feeling rather down. He had accidentally forgotten his and Calypso's anniversary, and she had been pretty angry about that. Now, Leo was alone in bunker 9, putting a few nails in the right place and repairing something for Frank which he had promised to repair ages ago.

It didn't go very good. Even though repairing a sword was rather brainless work for Leo, his mind was constantly trailing of. A lot of things had gone wrong these days. It wasn't that he had forgotten one anniversary. He had also forgotten Annabeth's birthday, camp half-blood's 3700 year anniversary, the monthly get-together of the Hephaestus cabin, Frank's birthday and probably a few other things nobody had mentioned to him yet.

The sixth time Leo accidently smacked the hammer on his hands, he threw it angrily across the room. 'Curse you, dad! Why do you take away the one thing I was able to do?' He screamed.

'That's not very nice. I didn't expect to hear that from you, Leo.' Leo screeched and turned around, only to see that Hephaestus had appeared behind him.

Leo fell to his knees. 'I am sorry, father.' Hephaestus shook his head.

'It's fine. I heard you are having some problems with the people around you.' Leo nodded.

'I just can't seem to remember my appointments. And now Calypso is mad at me, too.'

'Do you understand why she is mad at you?'

Leo gave his father a weird look. 'Of course. Why wouldn't I? I have forgotten about three appointments with her the last few weeks, I would be angry too!' Hephaestus nodded a bit. 'It is a good thing that you understand. I had a hard time understanding when someone wanted something from me, and when they meant their kind acts.' The god stared at something on the wall, and his gaze gets a little muddled - like he is somewhere else.

' _Thetis, I can't tell you how thankful I am that you allowed me to live in your house, but I can't stay here. I need to get to Olympus - get back to where I belong.' Hephaestus looks at the nymph in front of him. She looks concerned. 'Are you sure about this, Hephaestus? Your mother threw you out, back when - aren't you afraid she will do it again?' The god of the smith sighs._

' _I have a plan, Thetis. Nobody will dare to touch me afterwards.' The nymph looks afraid, but there is something else in her gaze - curiosity. She sighs. 'Take care and don't forget that if things go wrong up there, you'll always have a place here, under the ocean.'_

' _I will. And I'll never forget that you were the one who raised me and cared for me, I promise.' Thetis smiled._

' _Have a save trip, Hephaestus.'_

'Dad? Dad!' Leo's voice brings Hephaestus back to reality.

'I am sorry. I was just thinking about something, a long time ago…' the god scrapes his throat. 'Have you taken a moment to think about why you have been forgetting your appointments?' He asks. Leo shrugs.

'Not really, I assume. It just kept happening.'

'Maybe you should think about it for a little while.' Leo sighed.

'Alright.' Leo looked at his hands, and quickly trailed of into thought, this time not realizing that his father did the same.

 _Hephaestus looked around the room. The other Olympians looked shocked. Their eyes were wide, and some of them backed away. Hephaestus stared at his mother - she looked furious, afraid and slightly sad at the same time. Hephaestus took a deep breath. 'This is what happens if you wrong me. Don't try to release her, because it won't work.' He looked around the room one more time, and walked away. No-one dared to say anything._

Leo's voice pulled Hephaestus out of his thoughts. 'Now, I had a lot of appointments last weeks and I didn't write those down anywhere, because I guess I don't have a place to do that. Yet, that of course doesn't explain why I forgot things like the meeting of our cabin or the anniversary of Camp Half-blood, because everyone was talking about it all day long. Also, it is not like I had a lot of projects I was working on. I mean, maybe…'

 _Four gods had tried to persuade him into breaking Hera out. Ares had tried to scare him, Apollo had threatened him, Poseidon had told him he would flood the forge and Demeter had said she would let all the plants around the forge die. It hadn't worked, but they kept trying. Hephaestus looked over at the door. The fifth one had just walked in. Somehow, he didn't feel like the others. He wasn't mortal, but it didn't feel like he was completely immortal either. Hephaestus had seen a few demigods, but even that wasn't what the person standing by the door was._

 _He kept silent. Hephaestus rolled his eyes. 'If you are here just to ask me to break Hera free, just go away already and don't waste your time.'_

' _That's not the only reason why I am here.' Hephaestus felt that his eyes went wide, and he awkwardly put a step back. He shook his head. 'Then why are you here? I feel that you are a god, I think… Listen, kid, four gods have tried to fight me the last few weeks. So just get onto that, alright?' The stranger laughed._

' _Hephaestus, I am at least forty centimetres smaller than you are. What do you want me to do?' Hephaestus opened his mouth, but then closed it again. He hadn't realized that this stranger was, in fact, very small compared to him. Actually, he seemed to be on the same height as most mortals (maybe on the slightly shorter side) which confused him even more, but he just smiled. 'You might be right. Just tell me your name, and what you are here for.'_

'... and I think that might be why I have forgotten nearly everything in the last few weeks.' Hephaestus jerked his head up. He hadn't heard anything Leo just said. The boy was smirking at him. 'So I think I might get a diary, and ask people to remind me of my appointments daily. Also, I have thought of ways to apologize to everyone. You know, dad, you were right. This thinking about stuff really works. Now, can you tell me what you were thinking about?'

Hephaestus smiled. 'You see more than I think you, don't you?' Leo nodded.

' _I still don't understand how you got me so far. I mean, we are really walking all the way from Lemnos to Olympus, so I can free Hera from her throne.' The person next to Hephaestus sighed. 'You're right. I don't even know why I agreed to try and get you. I mean, what have the others ever done for us? We are outcasts, we don't have any fancy flying chariots or great magic like they do and they still rely on us for help!'_

 _Hephaestus laughed. 'I guess that is the Olympians for you!' He sighed. 'That's another thing. I keep wondering why I even want to be an Olympian. Is it the inclusion? Is it the apparent great power?' Hephaestus turned his head to his companion, who had stopped walking. 'Dio? What do you think?' The other god sighed as well. 'I don't know. I just became a god, you know - no warning, no-one asking me to become one, nothing. I was afraid at first. So, maybe I am going for that because if I have to become a god, why not go the full way?' Hephaestus nodded. 'You might be right.'_

'I was thinking about my own past. I was casted out as a small child, and it didn't seem like I had anybody I could trust on Olympus. I didn't feel any compassion for any of them.'

'You do have compassion for the rest of your family now?' Leo raises one of his eyebrows. The fire god manages to hide a smile when he fails.

'More than I used to, I guess. In Lemnos, I only really cared for my forge. I didn't care for any life. Demeter threatened to let all the plants around die, and I didn't even understand why that was a real thread.'

'Well, I assume I felt compassion for Thetis and my donkey. Yet, Thetis wasn't there, (and neither is she an Olympian) and my donkey… was a donkey. The first Olympian I felt any compassion for was Dionysus - he actually seemed to just hang around the blacksmith because he appreciated me, and he was the one who got me so far as to go back to Olympus. He was also the one who made me realize that life might be something you don't want to just give up.

 _It was nighttime, but Hephaestus laid wide awake. A few metres away from him, another figure was sleeping. They were close to Olympus now, about two days walking away, but they hadn't moved forward in two days. Dionysus had caught a fever, and there was no way he would be able to reach Olympus in his current state._

 _The figure moved in his sleep, and mumbled something. Hephaestus sighed. He didn't know if fever dreams were always this bad, or that they were just made worse because of Dionysus' relation to madness. He woke the figure up. Two feverish eyes looked at him like they didn't recognize who he was. 'Say, Dionysus, can any god just catch an illness? Because I never did,' the blacksmith says, getting straight to the point before the other person falls asleep again._

' _Not any god can get it, but I wasn't exactly born a god. I probably am not fully immortal yet. But it will go away, it always does.' He shivers. Hephaestus throws another blanket over his body. 'Are you sure? I did occasionally meet mortals every now and then on Lemnos, you know. A lot of them had relatives or friends who had caught a fever, and they had… just died.' Hephaestus swallows. 'I don't want you to die.' Dionysus looks at him like he never expected him to say something like that, before falling asleep again._

'You understand that that was only something basic. I probably could have gotten that from a very special mortal. But still… it was something, and Dionysus appreciated it. He had been a demigod until pretty much five months before he came to get me from that island, and he had the exact same relationship with the gods as me. He adored Thetis and didn't know what to think of the rest.'

 _Hephaestus walks into the throne room, with Dionysus by his side. The gods turn their heads, and gasp. Hephaestus doesn't say anything, but walks over to Hera's throne. The cables loosened, and she jumped off of it. 'Thank… you?' She muttered. Hephaestus shrugged. The other Olympians all crowded around Dionysus, wondering how he did it. The wine god looked over at Hephaestus, who nods and walks away._

'After I got back on Olympus, people started to get used to me. Hermes and some others made the effort to get to know me, and I started to feel more for them too, either negative or positive. Yet, sometimes, I still wonder how if I really feel what I am feeling, or if anybody is feeling the way they say.' Hephaestus stopped talking. Leo was just staring at him, with his mouth hanging open.

'That was a wild history lesson, dad.' Hephaestus laughed.

'You were always the class clown, weren't you?' Leo give him a smirk.

'I might have been, who knows?' He jumped up. 'But now I have to go apologize to Calypso and the others. Thanks for the lesson in dealing with forgetfulness and other things, dad!' Leo ran out of bunker 9, leaving his dad behind. Hephaestus kept looking at his hands for a while, alone in bunker 9.

' _So you are the god of the forge?' Hephaestus nods, while he looks into the gorgeous eyes of Esperanza Valdez. The woman doesn't throw a fit, like some others. She keeps calm, like she knew all along. 'I should have known.' Hephaestus lays his hand on her cheek. 'I can't stay for much longer.' He looks away from her eyes. 'Please be safe, Esperanza. I want you to live a happy life.' She laughs. 'I hope so, too.' She lets go of his hand, and he puts his hand down. From mount Olympus, he can see her standing by her door for a long time._


End file.
